Colin Klinkert Dot Com

One of the biggest components of a website’s success in search engine rankings is the proper selection and use of keywords. Emphasizing the right keywords can make your website stand out in the right circles, getting you traffic and revenue. That said, finding the right keywords can be a tough task.

Selecting the right keywords and phrases relies on two things: research and specificity.

For the research part, go to websites that offer similar services to what you will provide and look at its keywords. Often you can see them by right mouse-clicking on the page and selecting “View Page Source”. But there are also a lot of online keyword analysis tools, like Spyfu, that allow you to enter a web address and return a keyword list, so make use of them. Such a list will provide you with a starting point.

Once you have the list, it is time to get specific. Basic one-word keywords generally face very tough competition. For example, if you wanted to start a successful website about independent music acts in your city, then the keyword “music” would not be one to focus on. You will face tough competition from online music distributors, online merchants like Amazon, record companies, music magazines, etc.

If, however, you use that starting keyword and make it more specific, you can have better success. So, instead of music, try “music in New York” or “New York indie music,” or any other variation that will include the base keyword and make it specific for your topic.

Search engine users have become sophisticated enough to realize that in order to find the content they want, they must enter specific search terms. If your keywords reflect variations of those specific terms, then you will be able to generate traffic, and that traffic will be made up of the exact people who are interested in your topic/product/service.

Are You Following Me on Twitter? http://www.TwitterColin.com – I Follow Back

Video Intro To This Post Can Be Viewed Here: http://viralnetworks.com/view/CCI0x

Keywords are Important in Marketing

Before you begin an internet marketing campaign, it is crucial to have a specific set of keywords that you will be focusing on.  If you don’t have a list of keywords, your efforts are likely to be ad hoc and aimless, and your campaign could lose focus.  It is far better to have good rankings on a select set of keywords than mediocre rankings on lots of keywords.  Brainstorming is an easy way to come up with keywords.

This is an exercise many of you might remember from grade school, but it works, so give it a try.  Write the name of your product in the middle of a sheet of paper.  Around it, write down the first words and phrases that come to mind, connecting those words to the original with a short line.  Then, for all of those words and phrases, write down what comes to mind when you think about them.

This is called a Cloud Diagram or a Cluster Diagram, and it will give you options you didn’t know you had.  For example, if you were selling web design software then you are already focusing on keywords like “web design” and “how to design a website.”  But you may have missed more focused keywords like “writing HTML” or “coding PHP.”  These are more specific, meaning a smaller audience, but that also means less competition.

If you are conducting a PPC (pay per click) or PPV (pay per view) campaign, using the right keywords and key phrases is imperative.  Choosing the wrong ones can cost you dearly, but by being more focused, you can target your prospects (potential customers) with laser-like precision.

There are also some great tools available to help you select keywords, many are free, like the Google Keyword Tool, which, although designed for Google’s Adwords, can be used by anyone. It is powerful as it shows searches so you know what ones are worth your time and what ones aren’t. Rule of thumb, if it gets less then 1,000 searches a month, scrap it (Unless you are doing PPC and it is a very targeted term that will lead to high conversions.)

You can also use the Google Keyword Tool if you are doing SEO strategies to try and get to the first page of google on those terms. If you find one with a decent amount of searches, search it in google with “keyword” and see how many competing sites there are… of course, the less the better.

Researching and using the right keywords can make or break an internet marketing campaign, particular in the launch phase in affiliate marketing.  So it makes sense to include  keyword research in the early stages of your project planning.

More Tools

As well as the Google tool there are other, more advanced tools available. I use PPCBully to spy on competitiors who are bidding on keywords I have brainstormed to see if they are profitable or not. PPCBully works well, but does take a bit of time to gather the data

Network With Me

If you want to say hi, please feel free to join ViralNetworks, my Business Social Network of choice. Looking forward to hearing from you.